Is prayer an active part of your life? This morning when I sat down to write, I felt the Lord wasn’t finished with our conversation about prayer. He wants us to understand how desperately He desires intimacy with us. One of the ways to develop intimacy with Him is through prayer.
Maybe a little confession time will help illustrate my point. It was finals week of my last semester of college. My godfather was in the hospital on a ventilator fighting for his life, I was preparing for finals and my daddy was about to have surgery that was very delicate. Needless to say, I had a lot on my mind. I was a bit overwhelmed and needed to talk through things with someone. I was on my way to visit my grandmother, because she always helped me keep my head on straight. I was almost there. As I came down a hill I saw a police officer sitting on the side of the road. He pulled me over for speeding. I wasn’t doing anything intentional. I simply picked up speed coming down hill and was too distracted to think to correct it. When I got to my grandmother’s house, I was a mess. She and I talked about it and decided it was best not to tell Daddy right before his surgery. I convinced myself that I didn’t want to stress him out and keeping it to myself was for his benefit.
I went to the University hospital with Daddy at the end of the week. We were sitting in the waiting room waiting for him to be called back. Something was said about driving then he turned to me, smiled and said, “What do you think, Little Richard?” The color drained out of my face. He knew. I don’t know how he knew or who told him, but he knew. It all came spilling out like water out of a hose. I told him everything. I didn’t leave a detail out. He put his arm around me and told me not to worry about it, we’d take care of it.
Because he knew, I didn’t have a bit of trouble sharing the whole story with him, details and all. He still loved me, even though he might have to pay a higher insurance premium and a ticket fine. Don’t you see, God knows anything and everything about you. Do not allow the enemy a moment’s victory in keeping you from seeking to build an intimate relationship with God by encouraging you to keep things from Him.
My Daddy already knew about my speeding ticket. He allowed me to tell him because he knew I needed to tell him. He knew I needed to get it off my chest and by telling him about it, I was trusting him with it. I knew he would help me get through it and he would carry the heavy part of the load. He wanted what was best for me and he wouldn’t begin to allow something like a speeding ticket to interfere with our relationship.
God’s desire is for you to passionately pursue your relationship with Him and share with Him all of the intimate details about yourself. Even though He already knows them, He wants you to share them with Him so He can share the experience with you. He also wants you to know the intimate details about Him.
There are many secrets or mysteries, things hidden if you will, about God. His desire is for you to learn them. But you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and work for those things. You have to invest in the relationship to learn those things.
Jesus is calling you to come chase Him and then He’ll tell all [Jeremiah 33:3]. He tells us in Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jesus isn’t a halfway kind of guy. He’s a jealous God by His own admission [Exodus 20:5]. He is looking for the real deal, the person who is passionate about a relationship with Him.
Are you willing to seek Him? Will you tell all and then “be still” so He can reveal Himself to you [Psalm 46:10]? What will you share with Him today?